The present invention relates to an automatic cash transaction system and method, the system being composed of a plurality of automated teller machines (hereinafter referred to as ATM) and a supervisory center for supervising the ATMs, wherein cash transactions are performed using card (for example a magnetic identification card) storing at least an index representative of the number of a user's account. More specifically, the invention relates to an automatic cash transaction system and method suitable for use in searching particular transactions already processed, and in recovering a transaction failure under control of a supervisory center commonly located remotely from ATMs.
ATMs of this type are known as disclosed in JP-A-61-161572, JP-A-61-253597, and JP-B-62-548 which teach that the image of characters embossed on the surface of a card is photographed with an electronic camera and stored in a memory of an ATM.
The above prior art aims only at storing the image of characters embossed on a card surface at an ATM, instead of directly using journal sheets. However, this prior art does not concern a function to search a particular transaction trouble from the stored information.
A transaction failure at an ATM should be recovered at its site. However, the stored information has not been utilized positively by a supervisory center remote from ATMs in order to recovery the failure, thus posing a problem in operating self-service ATMs.